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Safety Board Outlines Problem With Obama Campaign Plane

By Matt Wald July 10, 2009 11:56 amJuly 10, 2009 11:56 am

Just about a year ago, the Obama campaign plane was forced to make an emergency landing after an evacuation slide inflated within the tail cone, causing interference with cables used to control the tail.

In a report issued this Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the slide inflation occurred after the plane took off at an unusually steep angle.

The plane, part of the MD-80 series, has a single aisle and engines mounted near the tail, and has a slide that can be inflated for emergency evacuations on the ground. The slide is covered with a cone that forms the hind-most part of the fuselage.

The cone did not detach on the brief flight on July 8, which was supposed to be from Midway Airport in Chicago to Charlotte, N.C., but was hurriedly diverted to St. Louis.

An examination of the slide after landing showed it was damaged, apparently from contact with a cable that runs through the cone. The cable moves the parts of the tail that control the plane’s nose-up or nose-down attitude.

The NTSB report, considered an interim one, did not say what caused the problem. The report said that the plane took off a little more steeply than normal, at 26.8 degrees, and that the combination of angle and inertia could have allowed the cover of the slide, if it was not secured, to “rotate open and initiate slide inflation.”

The report said that such incidents are extremely rare. It also said that the pilot was able to “regain control” after takeoff, and push the nose down to a level position, after the plane’s nose reached an upward pitch of 20 to 25 degrees. According to Boeing, “typical pitch angles during initial climb are between 16-20 degrees, with occasional flights reaching 25 degrees,’’ the report said.

The problem on the plane was compounded by decreasing atmospheric pressure as the plane climbed; that allowed the slide, which is like a balloon, to get bigger. When the plane descended, the slide evidently shrunk a bit and the pilots reported that the controls were returning to normal.

The Safety Board report did not identify the plane as Mr. Obama’s. It noted only that the flight was “a charter operation for a political candidate, his staff, reporters, and the United States Secret Service personnel.’’ It also said that the Secret Service had not “interfered with or altered the aircraft’s hardware or systems relating to the tail cone evacuation slide.’’

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